United States of beer: What beers are most likely to be on menus in every state

Priceonomics’ “United States of Beer” map was inspired by the growing number of breweries across the country, which the San Francisco-based data blog believes accounts for increasing “geographic variety in the beers people drink.”

Using data from BeerMenus.com, they set about answering a number of questions about beer culture in all fifty states.

First up, they identified the most common beers on menus. Like a dozen other states, Bud Light is the most common feature on menus in Texas, according to the data blog.

Only a few states — like Montana where Shiner Bock is curiously the most popular menu beer — had something that deviated from the big three macro brews (Bud Light, Coors Lite and Miller Lite).

Appearing on nearly half of all bar and restaurant menus, Hill Country-brewed Real Ale Fireman’s #4 is the beer most likely to be on Austin menus.

Just for fun it seems, Priceonomics also created a “PBR Index” to rank cities by their availability of American hipsters’ favorite beer. According to their data, as little as 14 percent of bars and restaurants in Austin serve PBR.

PBR lovers are much more likely to find places where they belong up in Saint Louis, Mo. or Madison, Wis.

And by Priceonomics’ reasoning, Austin is not too snobby when it comes to beer. Their top 20 “Beer Snob Cities” are based off the percent of bars and restaurants that do not serve Bud Light, Miller Lite and Coors Lite.

What do you think, Austin? Do those stats appropriately represent Austin’s beer culture? Should more places serve PBR? Should less?